I woke up on Sunday morning and packed, then went down for breakfast in the little restaurant at the Hilton. Got into a conversation with the waitress who had a friend who wanted to become a writer, and was supposed to be there for breakfast. I waited a little while, but he didn’t show, so I started on my day. First, I wanted to get a look at the strip in the daylight. I was thinking it would be dead on a Sunday morning, but I should have known that Gomora never sleeps. Still got some very good pictures of the tackiest place on Earth. Luxor, New York New York, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Caesar’s Palace. Circus Circus. All the famous names, including Trump and the tallest building in town, the Stratosphere Tower. There were people everywhere, and I guess gamblers got to gamble as long as they have any money. I was able to stop at a couple of places to get pictures, but I took most of them from my car. There were some angry horns behind me when I took my time at a light to get a good shot. I didn’t really care. I was in a rental car, they didn’t know who I was, and I was gone before anyone could get out of their cars. Got some great pictures. Next time I will go into some of the casinos, possibly see some shows, but I’m not one to throw away money on games of chance that favor the house.

Stratosphere Tower.

I had decided to go to the Valley of Fire State Park after driving through the center of Sin City. I didn’t know anything about the place, except the name sounded cool. I thought it might be the site of ancient volcanoes, and that was something I would have really liked to see, since I had missed the ones back in Arizona. It was about a half hour’s drive to the offramp, and I stopped at the Piute Indian truck stop when I got there to get some gas and get a snack. I played my only slot machine while there, spending all of seventy cents for two plays. Now I was expecting the one armed bandits when I got to Vegas, the ones like in the Twilight Zone episode, or every movie I have ever seen about the area. The ones where you put a coin in and pull the arm down. If you’re lucky a bunch of coins comes rattling into the hopper at the bottom of the machine. Nope. Now they’re digital instead of mechanical. You put in bills or credit/debit cards, get a readout, and push a button. Not at all as exciting as actually putting a coin in and pulling the arm. And you get a ticket printout of your winnings. How boring. And for some reason I would trust the mechanical version more than the on the fly electronic one. Anyway, I had fed my very tiny gambling addiction (really nonexistent) and it was time to see the sights.

Just before the Valley of Fire.

The Valley of Fire.

It was a fifteen mile drive to the park, and after about eight miles of almost flat desert the mountains along the way were spectacular. I don’t think I saw any boring rock formations on this trip, and again, every one was as individual as a fingerprint. And then the Valley of Fire was in front of me, large groups of red rocks sticking out of the earth. Again, spectacular rock formations, almost every one of them red. A good percentage of these rocks were iron ore, and had rusted over the ages, then were thrust up through plate tectonics. At the entrance of the park were some spectacular formations, and I spent some time walking around to get a view of the petrified logs. Further in were even more spectacular formations. In one direction was a valley that reminded me of someplace in the alps, rolling valley going up to highlands. At the guest center, near the center of the park, was a road that went up into the mountains, with some white rocks intermingled with the red. There were signs pointing to the Beehives, and I had seen a sign about African Killer Bees in the park, so wasn’t sure I wanted to go there. Turns out they were rock formations that reminded one of beehives.

The Beehives.

I drove back to Las Vegas, wondering what I was going to see next to kill some time. There was Red Rock Canyon, which I had seen on my GPS the other day. I punched it into the GPS and I was off. On the way back I noticed lots of places in the desert glittering in the sun. It was pieces of glass from shattered beer bottles, and I realized that people in this place partied in the desert and trashed their party spots just like many people back east. Sad. I got back into Las Vegas and found that the direct path to the canyon was closed down, the highway under construction, which forced me back into the center of the city, back to the strip. I got to the park at 4 PM, wondering if it would be closing soon.

One of the few formations of red rocks in Red Rock Canyon.

There were a bunch of cars waiting at the payment booths. I paid and started into the canyon, intending to stop at the visitor center and use the bathroom. I missed the turn and was on a one way road into the canyon, my bladder about to burst. Another thing about the desert. There are no convenient trees to go behind, and in this place all of the rocks were mountains, and people could see you from miles away. So I held on until I reached one of the bathrooms, which were really just permanent versions of portolets. The canyon, which was really more of a valley, looked about a mile wide from the entrance. It was hilly, with the road winding up and down the rolling landscape, large rocky mountains around the sides. I swore I had seen some of those formations before, in texts or pictures. It took about an hour to drive around the valley that had appeared only a mile across. I looked it up on Google Maps later, and found that it was large enough to drop Tallahassee in.

Spectacular formation in Red Rock Canyon.

Afterwards, I had time to kill. I washed the car so it would be clean when I turned it in, then went to get something to eat in a place where I could sit for a couple of hours. Then to the airport to catch my flight, three and a half hours early. When I turned in the car I asked if they wanted my half case of bottled water. They said yes, and I pulled the water from the trunk, then noticed all the bottled water sitting there on the side of the return lane. I guess a lot of people have read the caution about carrying water in the desert, and most don’t finish all that they bought. I rode the bus from the car return to the airport, and most everyone was talking about all the money they lost at the casinos. I felt good about only wasting seventy cents. Through TSA, always fun, then a three hour wait for the flight to leave. There were slot machines behind the waiting area, and I thought they must be trying to make sure people didn’t get away with any money in their pockets.

The flight was crowded, capacity, and uneventful. We came into Atlanta at sunup, and it was another more than two hour wait for the flight to Tally. I met the FSU Softball team and their coaches while waiting. While I was flying in from Nevada on the redeye, they were taking the overnight from California where they had played in a tournament.

So, what did I learn? That you really have to see things with your own eyes to get perspective. That the clear air of the desert and altitude made everything look much closer than it was, and there were few places to hide there. That you could get dehydrated at thirty degrees. I could just imagine what it is like in the heat. And I found the setting I would use in my future post-apocalyptic series. It was a great trip, an eye opener, and a treat for the soul. I have vowed to return, this time going into North Nevada, over into Utah, and down to see the Grand Canyon from the north face. Not sure if I would want to live there (though the thought has crossed my mind), but I could become a frequent visitor.

Exodus: Empires at War: Book 12 is finally here for the US, and here for the UK. I know I have been promising, over and over. I have been asked over and over. I kept meaning to finish. I started this book while on the Sail to Success cruise, along with book four of Machine War. I thought I would start on both, then decide on which one to do first when I got home. I decided on book 12 of the Empires at War series, and had planned to have it done by the end of January or beginning of February. And here it is, almost through with April, and I finally finished. So, what happened?

Well, I have the book contract with Arc Manor, and the publisher hired one of the best editors in science fiction to work with me. Seriously, one of the best, which goes to show how important the publisher thinks that project is. Also, I went on a trip out west to meet about the project, traveled to see possible settings for a post-apocalyptic series. Then there was the alternate history series I want to do. And Exodus is getting hard to keep fresh. One of the problems with a long series that I didn’t realize when I started it. I had planned on twenty books when I first started. Now it’s looking like fifteen, with five or six in the Machine War spinoff. And then maybe another series in the future, either going back in time to look at the beginning of the Empire through a series of stand alones, or into the future and a new threat. Or maybe both. Twelve is a complicated book, involving a lot of story lines, and it was difficult to keep everything together, especially when other ideas were crowding into my mind. Anyway, enough of the excuses. The book is here, I hope everyone enjoys it, and now it’s time to get to work on the next one.

So here’s the plan, for now. I will start in on Machine War 4, estimated time of release in mid-June. Then I want to tackle the next book in Refuge, which has at least two books to go to reach a logical finish. Then on to books 13 and 5 of Empires at War and Machine Wars respectively, followed by book two of Theocacy, which will finish the year for releases. I have one or two short stories to put out for anthology invites, and of course I will need to work on the new traditionally published military science fiction/space opera series. I got a very nice deal on this series, which the publisher is hoping will turn into something big, with other authors contributing on an invitation basis. Oh, and I need to finish up the fantasy that caught the interest of another editor and a big time agent. So I guess my work is cut out for me, and I need to work a lot harder than I have been. But first, let’s enjoy the new book. Here’s an excerpt:

Samantha Ogden Lee was a cousin in the Imperial line, not in a direct path of succession. Several dozen people would have to die for her to ascend the throne, and that was not her wish or desire. Everyone knew that all of the close line had the gift to various degrees. Sean was said to have it to an extent unseen in generations. She had it as well, not to his level, but powerful enough, though she was careful to keep her ability hidden. She knew that many people thought the prophetic dreams were the visitation of demons, the more superstitious of them, and those would treat her as someone possessed.

There was nothing supernatural about the gift, at least not according to the scientists who had studied it through the ages. They still didn’t really understand it, only that the source came from the still spooky environs of quantum physics. All she knew about it was that she wished she didn’t have even a smidgeon of it.

She felt the dread within her sleep as her dream changed, taking on the familiar aspect. The unreal of the dream state took on a clarity that seemed all too real. A scene of people standing on the roof of a building. Around it stretched a city that showed the destruction of the strike the Cacas had visited upon it. She could tell it was Capitulum. And from the damage she could tell it was either in the recent past or the near future. From the scaffolding surrounding some of the buildings, and the work robots restoring the surfaces of damaged buildings that hadn’t fallen in the attack, she guessed the near future. Very near, in fact, since there was still so much work to be done.

Then her attention was captured by the people on the rooftop, which she recognized as the landing platform of the office building the Fleet was using as their headquarters for the time being, until the massive damage to the Hexagon could be repaired. Most of the people were in uniform, though there were civilians intermixed with the spacers, and everyone had their attention turned to the sky.

Samantha’s dream self looked up with them, to the bright disk of the G class primary that Jewel orbited. At first, she couldn’t tell what was going on. It took almost a minute to determine what was causing their attention to focus on the star. The disk of the star had visibly shrunk as she watched. It was a slow process, until she remembered how large it actually was, and how distant. Then the magnitude of the problem became apparent.

“It’s getting brighter,” yelled out one of the bystanders. It did seem to be, and that could only mean one thing. The star was compressing inward, and that was increasing the rate of fusion in the center. If it kept up?

The heavens flared, blindingly bright, and everyone cried out as they tried to cover their eyes, too late. All were permanently blinded, except for Samantha, who was not really there. Their burned-out eyes could eventually be restored, but they would not be given that time. Clothing and skin smoked, then flared into vapor. The entire city followed suit, buildings made of materials that should not have been flammable burning away in seconds.

Samantha’s view shifted out, to see the seas boiling, the exposed rocks left behind by the ashed forests glowing, then flowing.

Her view shifted further out, until she was looking down on the world, and the far disks of New Terra and Ariel, both glowing from the brilliant reflected light of the exploding star. Moments later the shock wave hit, and all three worlds flared even brighter, then turned into exploding fragments of rocks, some the size of continents. Those huge structures came apart in seconds, until the three worlds were gone, their glowing particles propelled outward from the explosion.

What the hell happened? thought Samantha. She knew what had happened. The star, a G class that couldn’t possibly supernova, had just done so. She just didn’t know why it had happened. An instant later she was sitting up in bed, sweat falling off her face, soaking her bedclothes, her breath coming in gasps.

The enormity of the dream struck her, some of the images fading away, others etched within her mind. The star had gone supernova, against all the laws of physics. A moment later the legends were assaulting her mind. How the ancients had messed with the time stream, and had brought disaster to living systems.

Sean needs to know about this, she thought. Someone was going to do something in the Empire that would lead to a disaster that would dwarf anything the Cacas had done. And Sean needed to know. At that moment she wished again that she was the regent, a position no longer needed now that Jennifer was functioning fully as the empress. But with the loss of the position, she had also lost her access to top levels of Imperial secrets. She had been happy to be relieved of those duties, and had hoped that she might take up a position in Fleet intelligence. Now she wished she still had her access so she could see what might be going on.

“Get me the Emperor,” she said to the apartment com system. “Utmost urgency.”

She waited impatiently as the com system queried the Imperial government net for a minute. It normally didn’t take that long, and she wondered if Sean was engaged in private business, maybe with the empress. He would be pissed, because if he was in range of the com net, her code words would get her through to him. Well, he could go ahead and be pissed. This was too damned important. Whatever was going to happen might not occur for weeks to months, or it might happen this day. She had a feeling it was going to be a lot sooner than a week.

“The Emperor is not available at this time,” said the voice of the com system.

“Shit.”

“I did not understand that reference,” replied the literal system.

“Get the Empress. Utmost urgency.”

“What is it, Sam?” answered the voice of Jennifer, her voice heavy with sleep, almost sounding drugged.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Jennifer. But I had a dream. One of the kind that haunts our family.”

“I didn’t know you got those, too.”

“Unfortunately, yes. Or maybe fortunately in this case. Something really bad is going to happen, and soon. I need to talk to Sean.”

“Sean is out at the Donut, Sam. Something to do with hitting the Cacas before they hit us.”

“You mean before their next attack comes at us,” said the confused Samantha. The Cacas were already in the middle of an offensive against the Empire, one that was not going all their own way.

“No. The attack they pulled on us several months ago. The one that almost killed my child.”

By the Gods, no, screamed the thoughts in Samantha’s head. “He must not do that. Don’t you see. That’s what triggers the supernovas.”

“What supernovas?”

“We need to get through to Sean. Right now. If we wait it will be too late.”

On Saturday I woke up in Kingman, Arizona and packed up. Outside was a minor mountain that still had some amazing rock layers in it. What we see as rock today, for the most part, was laid down as sediment in some ancient sea, possibly for over a billion years. The layers are differentiated depending on what was the dominant variety of sediment. They compressed into rock over time, then were thrust up when the continental plates pushed together, and are often at angles. And there it was, right in front of me. I went searching for a breakfast spot and found another local restaurant that served a fantastic morning feast. Then it was on the road to the Hoover Dam and Nevada. The view from the road was again spectacular, and I kept wishing for more pullovers. Finally, I pulled over on the shoulder a couple of places and took pictures. I went over one hill and lost my breath. There, in front of me, were formations that looked just like the Grand Canyon. I realized later that it was, since the canyon continues past the dam that is built within it. There was a great pullover before getting to the dam, and I got a great view of not only the local mountains, but off in the distance the snow covered peaks of the Sierra Nevadas in California.

View on road from Kingman to Hoover Dam.

Back view of Hoover Dam.

The drive to the dam was a winding road, passing a huge transformer station, and then I was at the dam. It didn’t seem to be as big as it is portrayed in the movies. Later it was explained to me that because of the scale of the canyon it is built in, it seems to shrink a bit. Drove over the dam, stopped and got some shots, then drove back over it so I could go over the high bridge that was highway 93, on the way to Vegas.

Prison at Jean.

I love playing Fallout, and got the idea for a post-apocalyptic series set in the desert from playing New Vegas. And here ahead of me was the homeland of that game, Las Vegas and the Mojave Desert. Coming into Vegas I could see the large tower that dominated the game. Of course Vegas was much larger than in the video game, but that tower made me feel like I was in it. Soon I was on Interstate 15 heading for California, and most of the iconic locations of the game. First, I stopped at Jean, which has its own large casino resort in real life. I took pictures of the prison, in the game, hoping they wouldn’t think I was taking too much interest in it.

Pioneer Salon in Goodsprings.

Iconic Nuka Cola.

The road to Goodsprings runs from Jean and under the interstate. Mojave Desert to both sides, mostly scrub with some scattered Joshua Trees. The town itself was similar to the game, though you couldn’t see the Las Vegas tower from there. The Pioneer Saloon and connected restaurant were just about empty, and it was a little early for lunch, so I headed out to Sandy Valley. Like most of the valleys in the deserts I had seen so far it was a flat plate surrounded by mountains. I drove up the road that I was sure was the same one the giant wasps had attacked me on. Sandy Valley was nothing to write home about, some houses, some trailers, some industrial parks, and a lot of flat sand valley, from which I am sure the name comes. I headed back to Goodsprings for lunch, and now the place was hopping. Motorcycles, antique cars, lots of people. I came into the restaurant after the lunch rush, and there was a shotgun wedding going on in the courtyard in the back. I met Johnny Utah, a transplant who had come to check the town out because of the game and stayed. They had a bottle of Nuka Cola on display, but none for sale, and they were out of Brahma burgers. Something about the radiation levels being too low to support the big bovines. They did have Sunset Sarsaparilla though, and I had a couple of mugs with my lunch. Johnny gave me some tips on places to visit, and off I went.

I stopped at Primm, which indeed had the roller coaster around the much bigger Buffalo Bill’s Casino. Primm was much larger than in the game, and actually had a monorail that ran through the town to move people from casinos to outlet stores and back. Primm was right across the border from California, so off I went into another state, adding it to my list of visited places in America. To both sides stretched the Mojave, stark and desolate, though definitely not lifeless. In places there were large groups of Joshua trees, and backdropping everything were the mountains.

Joshua Tree in the Mojave Desert.

World War 1 Memorial in the Mojave Natural Preserve.

I got off the interstate at the Nipton off-ramp, and I could see the tiny village ten miles ahead across the desert. As always, I was amazed at how far I could see. Clear air and the lack of trees made it impossible to hide. I drove down to Nipton, which has a bed and breakfast and a small general store. I was tempted to get a room and spend the night. It would have been cool to sit outside my room and look into the desert at night. It was still early, only 2 PM local time, so I passed on that idea. I continued down the interstate into Cali, pulling off at a gas station that was at the edge of the Mojave National Preserve. Note to travelers. Don’t always believe what the locals tell you. The woman at the station told me there was nothing down that road. I went down it anyway, and into one of the largest Joshua tree forests in the desert. I walked a bit through the Mojave, not far, just enough to get an impression of the place. I heard some bird calls (I guess) at times, but saw nothing moving. It was cold, so I think most of the reptilians were dormant, while the mammals were waiting for night. I noted this was desert you could hide in, since the Joshua trees were, if not growing as thickly together as trees in a temperate forest, still in thick enough clumps that thirty or forty yards in would provide considerable cover.

It was still only 4:30, but I was getting tired, and thought a nap might be a good idea, so I head up to Vegas. I had to drive around a bit, since my GPS wasn’t cooperating with finding a hotel. Finally stopped at a Hilton Garden Inn, and paid three times what I had for my room in Kingman. But, then again, I didn’t have to worry about vermin coming out of the walls in this hotel. After a nap I found a place to eat, then headed down to the strip. I had no intention of doing anything there, I just wanted to see the place. It was the tackiness of Disney World magnified a thousand times. Everything was lit with flashing neon, even McDonalds and CVS. There were people everywhere, walking the streets or taking the tram (another monorail type thing. Not sure how far it ran, but I saw it in several places). There was a fake pyramid with a very bad fake Sphinx in front. A building that looked like a fake New York City skyline. A fake Eifel Tower. I’m sure everyone had seen the pictures, many have probably been there. But being there to see it beat the hell out of pictures. I went the length of the strip, then doubled back to see it again, before heading back to my hotel to sleep the sleep of the dead. I had seen the Hoover Dam and the lower Grand Canyon, visited a lot of the iconic places in the game, had experienced another desert, and had thoroughly enjoyed the day. Tomorrow was my last day in the West. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I was sure me and my GPS could find something.

I woke up the next morning about 7:30, checked the weather on my phone (I was learning) and decided that I needed a real jacket. Looking up Walmart, I first went across the street to have an old fashioned country breakfast. But first I stopped in the parking lot to take a look at Mt. Humphreys, the tallest peak in Arizona. And it was tall, at 12,633 feet, over five thousand feet above the high plain that Flagstaff sits on. The top was covered in snow. It looked so strange, out here by itself on the high desert. After breakfast I went to Walmart, sure that they would have a winter jacket. After all, we were just down from a ski resort. But no, all they had were work jackets, so in desperation I bought what looked like the warmest one. Then it was on the road toward Winslow, and Meteor Crater.

Mt. Humphreys through telephoto lens from Meteor Crater.

All the way there Mt. Humphreys was in my rearview mirror. I wished they had more pullovers on the highways, something I would continue to wish throughout the trip. When I got to Meteor Crater I could still see the mountain, which looked to be a couple of miles away. It was actually over twenty-seven miles distant, another example of the clear air. I also noted several river gorges along the way. Checking them out on Google Maps I saw that several of these things stretched twenty or thirty miles across the desert. So imagine that you are walking across this desert in the hot months, heading for the large mountain clearly visible, thinking it only a few miles away. You walk five miles, starting to get thirsty, and then you run into one of these gorges. If you’re lucky there is water in the river, which I’m not sure is guaranteed. And if there is water? You might have to climb down hundred foot or more cliffs to get to that water, or to get across the gorge. Something else to think about.

Meteor Crater is out in the middle of nowhere. There is a good road leading to it, but it is the only thing out there. The crater itself is hidden from the road, all you can see is the ridge that was formed by the impact. Looking down on the crater was impressive. They had a graphic showing how downtown San Francisco would fit inside the crater, and another graphic showing how four hundred mile an hour winds would have hit where the interstate sat, over ten miles away. It was hundreds of feet deep, and the meteor was said to have generated twenty megatons of energy. Those who read Exodus: Empires at War know that I hit things with much more powerful kinetics, but this gave me an idea of what the crater would look like. Only mine would be much larger. I could also see what looked like mesas off in the distance to the north, where the Painted Desert lay.

I had been planning to go through the Painted Desert on the way to the Grand Canyon. The cold changed my mind, even though it was hitting the forties by the time I was through with the crater tour. I kept thinking of getting stranded on some back road with the temperature dropping. That settled it. I headed back to Flagstaff and got on the road to the Grand Canyon. Everywhere around me were mountains. Not like the one we are used to in the east, where you mostly see trees with maybe a few rock formations here and there. These were rock, and you could see every sedimentary layer, and how they were folded and upthrust. And again, every range was unique. And in the distance you could see the cliffs of the upthrust that held the Grand Canyon, looking like some artist’s representation of the barriers to the lost world. They were over ten miles away, and clear as if they were a mile.

Little Colorado River Gorge, cut by a stream that feeds into the main river that cut Grand Canyon.

I headed through to the canyon’s east entrance. On the way I stopped at an overlook of the Little Colorado River, which feeds into the big canyon. Maybe a hundred yards wide, almost that deep, it was still very impressive, and a perfect example of geological processes that turn what was buried into what is above the ground. The National Park lay ahead, and I entered some forest before getting to it. There were a few cars in line, but it didn’t take more than a couple of minutes to get to the payment window. There was no one behind me, so I talked with the ranger operating the booth for a few minutes. Then, with great anticipation, it was off into the park. A couple of miles in was the Desert Overlook and the Watchtower, which had a large parking lot, bathrooms, and a restaurant. I got out of the car and, after hitting the restroom, walking down to the overlook. It was getting very cold out, and a wind was blowing from the canyon.

The Watcvhtower at the Desert View Overlook.

I walked onto the viewing area and got my first good look of the canyon. I was dumbfounded, thunderstruck, blown away. Like probably everyone in the world I had seen lots of pictures, even wide screen high def movies, of this canyon. Actually standing there, looking at it, realizing it was right there in front of me, was completely different than seeing pictures or film. To one side was a view over the desert that stretched to either side of the canyon. The opposite wall of the canyon looked like it was a mile away, when it was actually eight miles. The Colorado River looked small, until you realized that it was a mile down to the bottom of the canyon. And all around were rock walls of different shades of red, layers that had been laid down over a billion years in some ancient sea, then pushed up by plate tectonics, and eroded away over another billion years or so. Here were my geology studies brought to life. It was awe inspiring in the truest sense of the word. And I was here at the perfect time. Oh, it was cold, but it was also uncrowded. Talking with a woman in the restaurant, I learned that during the tourist season its bumper to bumper traffic. Still, everyone should see this thing. It makes you realize how small you really are, and how insignificant are lifespans are compared to geological time.

I was tempted to detour to the volcanic craters that populate the area behind Mt. Humphreys, but it was getting late, and I wanted to be at Hoover Dam the next morning. I drove along I-40, mountains everywhere, each range unique. It was still mostly desert, though there were some stretches of sparse woods. I pulled off at one place so I could get look at historic Route 66, a name I remember from the TV series from the black and white days of television. It’s mostly a dead highway in this day of superhighways, much as highway 90 and US 1 are in Florida. Then it was into Kingman, and a bit to eat before crashing for the night. More adventure awaited the next day, as soon I was out, images of the wonderland I had driven through that day dancing through my dreams.